Service dogs, how to get your dog 'officially' certified.

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I see where you are coming at. I wasn't sure if you were talking about service animals only or companion animals. Which of course wouldn't cause any violation to the law except I do see added problems.



This is true! However the tests we were talking about would give false results. Reasoning is because they are in a controlled environment. Doesn't give the actual stress test. Not all dogs could cope with the added pulling ones tail, paw, ear. Being banged into by a cart, body etc. Cope with objects falling or high pitch squealing noises or smells. As those tests wouldn't show this part. It is one of the reasons why not all dogs could be service dogs. Not due to stress in task training but due to the public settings. This would be true with companion animals as well.



True with both statements. Unfortunately some people don't get it. (case in point the owner of the store which obviously didn't teach proper public etiquette. Another example that was in the news was a small dog that a manager had in her office. Off leash. Unfortunately this is where the public could come in and get help. A guide dog team did just that and this small dog ran nipping at the handler. Causing a issue and was not really in control. Yet did have a CGC. This is because the person was not being responsible.



Yes I understand what your saying here. Although I humbly disagree for the above reasonings. I also see that it could cause some additional majour discrimination issues when it comes to access. Even if businesses have a choice to say yes to companion animals with proof or not. How would the business people get to know a non-disabled individual vs a invisible disability with their service animal?

Another factour would be people with fear and allergies to animals. Customers and employees a like. There wouldn't be a law that would cover those factours as companion animals don't need to be with their owners. So if a store has approve companion animals in what happens if there are quite a few and another customer that has issues with animals in the store! Just some thoughts. For me it would be similar to those individuals that do not smoke yet has to always deal with smokers in public til the laws changed around.

Don't get me wrong I love animals and I wouldn't mind being near well behave animal vs some people. Unfortunately I have had companion animals in various places in which people think it's ok to get in our space without asking. Not the animals fault but the individual.

Same way they do now. They ask, or the service animal wears a vest or harness that advertises it as a service animal.

Do you assume that every dog you see in public is a service animal? I don't. I know people put plain yellow vests on their dogs and take them places where they're technically not allowed, slipping in on ADA and violating the law since the person is not disabled and the dog is not a service animal. They don't cause problems. At the little organic grocery store I go to, there's a lady who always comes to shop with an enormous Anatolian Shepherd, and this is illegal but the store-staff won't do anything about it 'cause he's a great dog and less destructive and annoying than most human shoppers. She makes no claim that he's a service dog. It used to be that every time I went into the local post office there was a Scottish Deerhound sitting on a stool behind the counter and I'd go up and ask him to sell me some stamps, and she'd get down and go lick the man who ran the office, who'd be napping on a cot in the back, and wake him up to sell me stamps. Now it's a different post office and the dog is a Labrador cross, and the people don't take naps at work.

These things are not problems. They're nice. Really, the problem is, what if my former neighbor with the fear-aggressive Rotweiller figures that if that Anatolian Shepherd can go to the grocery store, why can't his rottie? The staff of the store could say, "Because he's nice and your dog is a fricking menace," and they'd be right, but it'd be easier to have a public policy to back that up. Also, if he could get good-behavior tags for that dog and be allowed to take it places, maybe he'd care that it behaved well. And if he had to take it to a pro-trainer to take the tests, he'd have had contact with one. It'd be a fine thing if more people did. Statistically, being relinquished to a shelter for behavioral problems is a major cause of death for dogs, and people are very apt to do that before they see a trainer. It'd be kind of nice if most dog-owners had actually seen a pro trainer once or twice and would say, "Oh, go, really, she's nice, she can help, sheesh."

Update.

I took my completed dog registration form into the council last week and stated that I had a disability and that my dogs were service dogs (registration is free for service dogs). I showed my centrelink (welfare in Australia) card which states that I am on a disability pension. The council declined to accept that as meeting their criteria based on Tasmanian DogControl Act of 2000 (which is the 'law' that they use to devise dog policies, which is incidentally under review, although I don't know much about that review at this stage). They only accept blind or deaf people's dogs as service dogs.

I've taken advice from a few sources in Aust (based on the very helpful advice here) and have now lodged a formal complaint online with the HREOC (human rights and equal opportunity commission).

I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks for the help. This is my first legal challenge although I often do consumer complaints and have also used the ombudsman. It's quite a different field though.

I have two precedent cases (supplied to me by a disability advocate in Launceston), but I haven't looked them up yet.

Please pleas train my dog. I doubt Jack Russell Terriers that terrorise the neighbours by day will ever get certified.

Good luck getting your dogs certified. What breed are they btw? Just curious.

2 whippets.